Hitman: A Gilded Cage

Providence is under attack.

Once more I get to delve into one my favourite games of all time before the weekend, wherein I will cover something different. Before I get into anything, however, I should remind anyone who is not aware that this will contain spoilers as to some of the story and gameplay elements in 'Hitman: No Subtitle'; if you haven't yet played the game and are interested, you might want to hold off. Now that's out of the way, let's focus on the third episode of IOI's story: 'A Gilded Cage'; Which was set in the sprawling markets of Marrakesh.

After Sapienza, us fans were all looking for more huge open areas with tons of space to explore, but Marrakesh turned out to be something of a cautionary tale in 'be careful what you wish for'. Don't infer that I dislike this level or anything, far from it, but IOI certainly went a bit too far with the whole 'sprawling' concept. The markets were huge, ungainly and crowded beyond all belief. Sure, this may be true to life with the actual city of Marrakesh, but that still doesn't make it particularly fun to have to push yourself through crowds in order to cross the street. That being said, 'A Gilded Cage' is still one of my favourite Hitman levels of all time and that mostly comes down to the two targets-of-the-day.

This time 47 is tasked with taking out one Claus Hugo Strandberg, A Swedish banker responsible for conducting a billion-dollar investment fraud against the Moroccan people, and General Reza Zaydan, a corrupt military general in the process of organizing a coup. If ever there were 'Heels' in the Hitman universe, it's these two. IOI go out there way to establish both of these clowns as unlikeable narcissists that seek to profit off the backs of the working man. They don't even allow you to respect Zaydan for having the fortitude and intelligence to achieve the rank of General as IOI implies his career was greased with nepotism and dishonesty. Claus spends most of his time holed up in the Swedish consulate after being sprung from his arrest convoy by a brutal mercenary attack carried out by Zaydan. A mob is gathered outside the embassy demanding Strandberg's head and Zaydan has his entire military unit stationed nearby in an abandoned school. 47 has to eliminate both of them in order to prevent a full overthrow of the government. (Because a construction company called Hamilton-Lowe holds contracts with the local government and stand to lose millions if they are disrupted. No one ever does anything out of the kindness of their hearts.)

This time the player is thrown into the markets of Marrakesh with two targets that are both stationed in entirely separate fortified locations across the map. 47 has the dual task of sneaking past a huge angry mob to get inside the consulate as well as through a mercenary checkpoint in order to get to the General. This brings up one point of contention that fans have with this particular map, in that you are forced to hoof it back and forth every time you replay the level; but I find that once you surmount the herculean task of memorizing that maze-of-a-map, this proves not to be that much of a setback. What is more difficult to work around is way in which both targets are protected by a different security force, this means that disguises and keycards that can be used to fool one group will not fool the other; demanding a few extra choke outs in order to be able to reach everywhere.

Visually, Marrakesh is actually quite atmospheric. IOI intended for the place to feel like a busy city that is ready to go off like a powder keg, and one can certainly feel that essence when they enter the consulate square. Waving banners, huge crowds and red billowing smoke conjure up the spirit of protests that we so often see in real life. However, with the level covering so much ground, IOI couldn't have the protesters in all the streets and so the rest of the marketplace is more shaped around the busy tourist trap, quite the change of pace from sleepy Sapienza. You walk through numerous stalls of snail soup stands, carpet stores and even a hanging lantern alley. The whole location is also seeped in this hazy musk that  you often expect with so many live food stalls operating in such proximity to each other.

Unfortunately, the world space itself feels very underutilized in this initial mission. (IOI expanded on the rest of the map in later level remixes.) Sapienza had some extra room in the map but those were mostly side locations such as the clock tower and the apartments. Marrakesh, on the otherhand, boasts a giant, guarded shisha club right in the middle of the map with virtually no purpose. They tied one opportunity to that location through an NPC, but no-one significant in the level ever travels to this playspace making it feel somewhat redundant. In fact, there is an entire portion of the map that goes severely unloved during 'A Gilded Cage'; highlighting the dangers of making a map just a tad too big.

For the locations that are utilized however, 47 has a lot of fun ways for dealing with his targets. (That is a department in which IOI would never drop the ball.) From the moment I saw the trailers of Strandberg gloating from behind those huge consulate windows I instantly became excited for a sniping opportunity. Sapienza might have technically been big enough to allow for some sniping, but it really did take some finagling to get everything in the right place, the targets were mostly inside a mansion and so the player had to really work to get their vantage. This time around players have full rein of every rooftop in the area, so it was essentially 'fifth freedom' for sniper enthusiasts.
Marrakesh also holds one of my favourite ever opportunities, one dripping in the dark humor that the Hitman franchise revels in. It requires the player to nap the disguise off that one NPC that IOI stuck in the shisha bar and then join an interview of Strandberg as the stand-in camera man. The banker uses this live broadcast as an opportunity to fan the flames of the protests, telling everyone how stupid they are to not have noticed the loophole he exploited in order to defraud them. Whilst he is the middle of his posturing, 47 might notice how there is a giant decorative Moose hanging from the ceiling and think how fitting it would be if someone where to drop that animal's arse upon the banker during the live broadcast. A fitting way to go.

Zaydan is a much more difficult character to have fun with, due to the fact that he strolls around a stocked military outpost, however there are still some cool ways to end his career prematurely. For Reza, there are a few opportunities to exploit his vanity in order to lure him into your path, such as in one opportunity wherein you happen across couple of guards quietly badmouthing him in one of the old class rooms. They don't notice the PA system behind them, even when you turn on the intercom so all the school can hear them complain about their commander's nepotistic rise to prominence. Once Reza, predictably, stomps over to rebuke the pair, 47 might spot a convenient porcelain toilet perched by a hole in the room above. One kick later and the coup meets it end by way of toilet. (Still don't think that would be enough to kill a grown man but 47 gets paid so I won't argue.)

Although it can be a bit cumbersome due to it's maze like structure and abundance of dead space, Marrakesh is still a great Hitman level and one of my personal go-to's when I just want some assassination action. Some fans remained a bit agnostic towards this level (others still are.) and expected something a bit more traditional out of IOI for their next level. Luckily for them, IOI decided to pick a classic Hitman concept for their fourth mission. But we'll discuss that... next Monday. (I have some topics I really want to cover this weekend.)